Ravindra Varma (9 April 1925 – 10 October 2006) was a Gandhian politician who served as the Minister for Labour and Parliamentary Affairs in the

Morarji Desai Ministry The premiership of Morarji Desai extended from 24 March 1977 to 15 July 1979. In the 1977 Indian general election Morarji Desai led the Janata Party to victory against the Congress party. Upon taking office, Morarji Desai became the first Indian ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

from 1977 to 1979.

Politics

He entered active politics in 1942. He plunged into the vortex of the freedom struggle while studying at the Christian College in Chennai. He was founder-president of the Indian Student Congress and the World Youth Assembly. He was first elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from

Thiruvalla Thiruvalla, alternately spelled Tiruvalla, is a town in Kerala and the Headquarters of the Taluk of the same name located in Pathanamthitta district in the State of Kerala, India. The town is spread over an area of . It lies on the banks of ...

in Kerala in 1962 on a Congress ticket. When Congress split in 1969, he stayed on as the General Secretary of Congress (Organisation) founding the organization along with Morarji Desai, Nijalingappa and Kamaraj. He was politically active in resisting the Emergency (1975–77) and organized underground cells. He was next elected in 1977 from

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

as a

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

candidate. He represented

Mumbai North Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency (formerly, Bombay City North Lok Sabha constituency) is one of the 48 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies of Maharashtra state in western India. Assembly segments Before delimitation, Mumbai North Lok ...

in 7th Lok Sabha from 1980 to 1985. He had been the Chairman of the

Gandhi Peace Foundation The Gandhi Peace Foundation is an Indian organisation that studies and develops Mahatma Gandhi's thought. History The foundation was established 31 July 1958 to preserve and spread Gandhi's thought. It began with donation of 10 million rupee ...

since the death of its founder-chairman Diwakar in 1989. He was the founder-chairman of the Gandhi Vichar Parishad at Wardha. He was also Chancellor of the

Gujarat Vidyapeeth Gujarat Vidyapith is a deemed university in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was founded in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, and deemed a university in 1963. Etymology "Vidyapith," in many languages of ...

Personal life

Varma belonged to the royal family in

Mavelikkara Mavelikkara is a taluk and municipality in the ''Onattukara'' region of Alappuzha district in the Indian state of Kerala. Located in the southern part of the district on the banks of the Achankovil River. Etymology The name Mavelikara ...

in southern

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. He died in 2006, aged 81.Ravindra Varma dead
/ref> He is survived by his younger son Harshvardhan Varma. His elder son Goutham and wife Mangala died within a span of a few months in 2015.

References

External links

India MPs 1977–1979 India MPs 1980–1984 Lok Sabha members from Bihar 2006 deaths India MPs 1962–1967 1925 births Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra Lok Sabha members from Kerala Labour ministers of India People from Alappuzha district Janata Party politicians Politicians from Ranchi Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians Indian National Congress politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala {{Maharashtra-politician-stub